The Delhi High Court dismissed a plea seeking directions to Election Commission of India (ECI) and the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) to take action against Rahul Gandhi, Akhilesh Yadav and Arvind Kejriwal for allegedly making misleading and false statements against the government and damaging the credibility of India.
The petition cited remarks made by Rahul Gandhi, Arvind Kejriwal and Akhilesh Yadav claiming that the Central government had waived off loans of industrialists amounting to nearly Rs 16 lakh crores.
A division bench comprising Acting Chief Justice Manmohan and Justice Manmeet Pritam Singh Arora dismissed the petition after observing that the wisdom of Indian voters cannot be underestimated and they know who is speaking the truth and who is lying. The High Court remarked that people of the country also know who is leading and who is misleading them.
Acting Chief Justice Manmohan stated that if any industrialist or anyone else is aggrieved by the statements made by opposition leaders, they have the wherewithal to move the Court and take appropriate action and a plea by a third party is not needed. The bench ruled that no orders are called for in the matter and the principle of locus standi cannot be relaxed in favour of the petitioner.
The petition lodged by Surjit Singh Yadav, claimed to be a farmer and a social activist, stated that the statements by the opposition politicians has resulted in creating a negative image of India and degraded the country’s and central government’s credibility. The plea claimed that these statements may affect foreign investment and tourism and promote anarchy.
The plea underlined that it is well known that as per Reserve Bank of India (RBI), Write off is not same as Waive off but writing off loans has been shown as waiving off loans by Rahul Gandhi, Akhilesh Yadav, Arvind Kejriwal and news outlets. It added that the statements are a deliberate twist to the actual meaning of writing off loans by the politicians and media outlets that had created confusion in the minds of the people, defaming the image of the central government.
The petitioner also sought removal of the statements made by the politicians from the social media platforms, news platforms and the social media handles of political parties.